


The End Wait

by Leafpuff



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Angst, CorruptedShipping, F/M, Fluff, I love Gold way too much, Romance, This ship is my titanic, rakufai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 15:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10310855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leafpuff/pseuds/Leafpuff
Summary: AU- In an all-out raging war between Johto and Team Rocket, and after what seemed to be a small leap of victory on Johto's side, Lack-Two, a Colonel of the Marines, finds time to call his wife, whilst trying to keep his feelings at bay about the decision he'd made that might just change their lives...





	

Lack-Two's fingers took a while trying to find the ring in his pocket, and then clutching on to it rather tighter than usual, he used his other hand to tap keys, light dancing in his eyes as a reflection of the monitor... and a mixture of aniticipation and slight regretfulness had clouded his normally razor-sharp mind.

He already knew what was going to happen. What he was going to say.

Whi-Two had appeared on the screen almost in a trance, Lack-Two figured she'd probably just been waiting for him to call, and she gave him a radiant smile that seemed to light up the whole tent.

"Lack-Two..." Her voice wasn't bubbling with affection or anything, just her eyes... "Good morning, honey."

For the love of God Lack-Two couldn't figure out how she seemed to grow even more beautiful everyday, inside, he struggled to keep calm as he gave her a smile.

"Good morning to you too. How are you?" The corner of her lips twitched as if she found it a light game, which frankly, was what he'd thought of it sometimes as well.

It was tough being formal, but in his days spent away from her, he'd well gotten used to it.

"Oh, we're fine." She said, understanding, of course, that he meant that in the plural, "Dean's doing his swimming again, it was tough luck but I told him his Dad would be proud, " she smiled knowingly at Lack-Two, and as he felt yet another surge of affection he couldn't help but grin, "...and that seemed to convince him.

"And Hannah, well..." She grew quite for a moment, the fact that she was worrying alarmed him more than a self exploding shell, "She just loves to pet Herdier whenever they come by, it nearly gave me a heart attack last time, o-one of them tried to bite her... Lack-Two."

"Have you tried using repels?" Lack-Two asked promptly, before rummaging in the bag beside his seat so he could find an incense to give to them, he knew they were more long lasting.

"Um, yeah, but they dig around and come up right inside the fence, they can smell the repels... I think."

Lack-Two stopped, then smiled as he turned his head to her. "Oh, it's simple then. I'll just send over Genesect, to protect them, okay?"

Whi-Two's smile turned rather hollow, "... But aren't you going to use it in the war?"

There it was again. The war.

His leaping thoughts at being able to talk to his wife was brought back to earth with a sudden jerk.

There he was, sitting back at the war camp, the fate of his life on a roulette wheel that decided whether he'd be alive the next day or not, but to be fair, he'd gotten pretty good at this game, and if it was second nature for him to remain living, then the fact remained that his mistake of marrying her and endangering her because of it could only be undone by him.

The fear was replacing the glint in her eyes now, it seemed she knew what he was going through, what kind of a hell site that place was and how many explosions happened there as part of a natural routine. Even though he'd been discreet. Even though he'd tried.

"When..." She began, her voice breaking through his thoughts, "When will you be coming home, Honey?"

'Home?' The word stretched out in his mind, forming a deep hollow in his stomach.

In these war grounds, he felt like a stray dog fighting in the new block. He'd had little information concerning the enemy, but had inherently decided to fight in unchartered quarters, since there was more challenge.

Being a Mr. Perfect meant you always had something to prove.

"I'll be coming in about five months or so." He answered calmly, slightly aware of the lie.

Actually, he didn't even know whether he wanted to come to her or not, apart from wanting to fight and all... He'd married her, and that was the truth. That blame was on him.

"Oh..." She said, and seemed a little thwarted, but then tried meekly, "Couldn't you...come off a little early?"

"I can't, I'm sorry."

_But I want to._

He felt a stab of pain as he saw her take it in, her eyes fading, her smile slightly more unsure as he looked at him, but all the same, he hoped she wouldn't try to ask for something more specific.

Whi-Two tried to maintain a façade of normalcy as she hurriedly fixed her apron, sweeping the brown hair a bit behind her shoulder, and it was hard not to notice that her fingers were shaking.

"You know..." She said, after tying the knot behind her navel, then looking up to meet his eyes. "Yuki just called, for her wedding with Hugh? I think she was really excited you were going to come, s-should I call her, or...?"

"I'll do it." He said promptly, and in the silence that followed, they both felt a twinge of regret.

Hugh and Yuki were the only friends they'd had from their days at the Trainer's School, the rest they'd never managed to contact with, or were simply unheard of after the Plasma incident.

"It's okay..." She began again, her smile pained but resigned, "I... don't know what's going on in there but I understand that it must be really important..."

_Not as important as you, obviously._

"And..."

The screen cut off to black, there was no 'Good bye'.

Because both of them were afraid it just might be, Lack-Two had already decided on it.

He waited for a bit, for the grief to come cascading down and take over.

But it didn't. It was just hollowness, the kind one might feel when they were dying. He felt numb, unfeeling, as if it was his safety mechanism to shut out the things that he couldn't cope with.

He felt the loneliness as he took the rucksack and hoisted its bag strap over his shoulder, closed his laptop and then took it with him as he was about to leave, and, understanding that he was trying to protect her lessened his guilt, albeit by a very small amount...

At the entrance of the tent, however, he saw someone. A lone figure hovering over the grass, and shadowing a part of it, his skateboard pulled up against a pole support.

Lack-Two's fingers impulsively slid around his gun, only a moment passed before it was slid out of its holster, and held level to the intruder's head.

"... Hey, bro!" The curtain like hanging that was obsecuring his view was pulled over, and Lack-Two breathed out a sigh of frustration as he saw the crazed guy, placing his gun back into its pocket.

It was that higher ranker again, with a hairstyle Lack-Two might have appreciated had he not used the _precise context_ to flirt with his wife. A rather smug but excited face protruded out first, and then he stepped in.

"Said goodbye to your wife and everything, Black Number Two?" Lack-Two didn't exactly know what he felt, but it certainly wasn't anger, even though he'd just been addressed with that nickname, because no, a 'goodbye' was the only thing he'd missed in what he'd hoped would not be a him-being-a-jerk-to-his-wife conversation.

But something else sparked inside him for a moment.

"No, " Lack-Two answered, and then straightened his visor as a sudden thought occurred to him, "We didn't say goodbye."

A rather surprised look loomed over the man's face, Lack-Two was too busy with his thoughts to care about what the man's name was.

It was probably Major 'Gold' or something. Jerkass.

"Life's a roulette wheel, baby! And you say you're missing the chance with your own wife?"

"I," Lack-Two folded his arms, "never said I was missing anything..."

"You're missing your wife, man. It's there in your eyes."

It was... _Understanding._ The feeling made his brain start thinking rapidly as he channeled everything out of his mind. And then he came to a conclusion, his heart was pacing rather fast now.

_If anything could happen, and you hadn't said a Goodbye... And whatever number you picked in the wheel affected the outcome, then the only thing left for you was to choose, right?_

"Right." Lack-Two said, Gold was surprised to see him smiling.

"Alright, yeah, so I'll... see you, buddy!" Gold went whistling out of the tent, but not after he'd picked up the skateboard.

Lack-Two, as alert as he usually was, was somehow not listening.

Whenever Lack-Two thought of something, it was his tendency to plan it out and become active as fast as he could, but this time, it took a while longer for him to clear his head as he opened the laptop.

_"Mom? I...t-think something's wrong."_

_"... Maybe he wants a divorce, Whi-Two."_

His fingers were almost jerking over the keyboard now.

"WHI." He shouted.

They appeared so abruptly on each other's screens that Whi-Two had to murmer and straighten up as she stopped talking to her mom, her tranceiver closing with a beep.

A look of disbelief flashed over her face as she saw him, her eyes seemed glazed with unshed tears, and then slowly, she started crying. "If you were here, Lack-Two..." She whimpered, "I swear I would have slapped you, how dare you!"

"I know." He said, his voice quite now.

"But I take it back, all of it." He leaned over so earnestly that Whi-Two was almost surprised.

" _Tomorrow_." He promised.

" _What_?" There was a brief moment as Whi-Two nervously held the brim of her apron.

" _I'll be home, tomorrow_." He reiterated.

_I love you._

_La Fin--_


End file.
